


Comfort

by Sparrowlicious



Series: The HS AU [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, Bruises, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Pre-Relationship, THE hs au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-22
Updated: 2018-02-22
Packaged: 2019-03-22 15:20:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13766943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sparrowlicious/pseuds/Sparrowlicious
Summary: After an argument with his father, Hux seeks refuge at Kylo's place. Little does he know that Kylo is in a rough spot himself. They find comfort in each other's presence.





	Comfort

Hux knew that climbing the lattice up to the second floor wasn’t exactly a good idea, on the other hand he knew that there would definitely be questions about the badly concealed bruise on the side of his face.    
Instead of facing the potential wrath of his step-mother for ‘borrowing’ her make-up he would rather climb one hundred lattices only to be away from her and his father, who would’ve whacked him in the face for wearing make-up to cover up the bruise he caused in the first place.    
Which was why he was here, climbing the lattice to Ben Organa-Solo, aka Kylo Ren’s bedroom instead of being at home. He was the only person who had ever seen Hux lose his cool in the face of his father’s wrath and Hux preferred it to stay that way so encountering Ren’s parents was not an option.

  
Up on the second floor Hux found Kylo’s window to be open, he knocked twice to announce himself before he slipped into the room. He knew he should’ve called ahead or texted but it only came to his mind when he was already at the house.    
“Kylo?”, he whispered, he couldn’t see his friend anywhere. Only the small lamp on the bedside table was on which didn’t illuminate the room much. 

Hux sat down on Kylo’s bed, expecting him to be close by. Maybe he was in the bathroom? He couldn’t be far away, at least it made sense since the light was on.

  
There was shouting downstairs that had Hux jump to his feet. His pulse was up in an instant, racing. He was scared.   
“Hux.”   
He looked around for the source of Kylo’s voice only to spot him under the desk. 

Kylo had his arms wrapped around his legs in an attempt to make himself seem smaller than he actually was. Hux felt relief flood him in the instant he saw that Kylo didn’t have to go through his parents shouting at him.The relief was short-lived when he saw Kylo’s face as he looked up to Hux.   
His eyes were red and wet and so was his face, he looked as miserable as if his parents were shouting at him instead of each other. The hood of Kylo’s sweater was pulled up over his head with his dark hair spilling out on the sides.    
Hux stared at him for a brief moment before he sank down to his knees, pulling Kylo into his arms out of pure instinct. Kylo tensed up at first but then he buried his face in Hux’s shoulder, his hands gripping the back of Hux’s shirt. His legs tilted to the side and Kylo was slumping heavily against him. In this moment Hux needed comfort as much as he wanted to give some to Kylo.   
There was still shouting to be heard from downstairs but Hux tried to tune it out while Kylo pressed himself even more against him.    
“Don’t tell anyone”, he muttered against Hux’s shoulder.   
“I won’t”, Hux whispered as he rubbed Kylo’s back with one hand, the other still holding on tightly. Kylo had kept his secret so it was no question that Hux would keep his as well.   


They stayed like this for a while. Hux’s legs felt uncomfortable after sitting on the floor for a longer period of time, even if it was carpeted. Still, he didn’t want to let go of Kylo, it felt good to hold onto him, it felt grounding.   
Only a few weeks ago their positions had been reversed when Kylo had confronted him about being visibly upset about a grade that hadn’t even been that bad, but he knew better now. He had seen firsthand what Hux’s father did if he dared come home with a grade that wasn’t a straight A.  
In a way it felt like paying Kylo back for his kindness, since he had actually been nice to Hux back then and had continued being decent towards him afterwards. They still quarrelled every now and then but never to the extent that they would stop hanging out. And also never like Kylo’s parents were still quarrelling downstairs. In their own way they had become friends.  
  
Logically Hux knew that neither of them was subject to any of the things they could hear but that didn’t stop his heart from racing or from holding tightly onto Kylo for support.These weren’t even his own parents, they were one floor up and it still shook him up badly, so much that he also buried his face in Kylo’s shoulder.   
  
The shouting stopped suddenly, the front door slammed and a little while later they could hear a car driving off.   
Kylo exhaled deeply and his grip on Hux’s shirt lessened but he didn’t let go of him yet, but he drew back a little to look at Hux. Kylo’s eyes still looked puffy and his face was just as red as before he had pressed it into Hux’s shoulder. They were painfully close and Hux felt embarrassed when Kylo stared at the part of his face where he had desperately tried to hide a bruise.   
“That old asshole hit you again”, Kylo muttered, he touched Hux’s face gingerly only for Hux to flinch ever so slightly.  
“Sorry…”  
Hux didn’t want to talk about it, he didn’t want to recount what happened, it was the sole reason why he was here instead of crashing at Phasma’s. Because Kylo didn’t ask a lot of questions. His comforts were more practical, less about talking and more about taking his mind off of things..   
“Can we do something? Listen to music or play a game?”, Hux whispered, he was still holding Kylo who had returned the hand he had used to poke Hux’s face with to his back where it held onto him loosely. Anything was better than talking about his own father, even listening to Kylo’s weird music or being terrible at one of his video games.  
“Sure”, Kylo muttered, letting go of Hux to pull away. Hux sat back on his heels to give Kylo some space so he could get out from under the desk. Hux felt a bit at a loss now that he ad let go of Kylo. He missed the feeling immediately.

“Shit”, Kylo whispered as he gripped the edge of the table while getting up. “My leg fell asleep.”   
Hux chuckled, being fine himself after standing up. He offered Kylo a hand which he took. Kylo’s hand was larger than Hux’s, it felt warm in his own.   
Hux pulled him over to the bed where they sat down next to each other. He didn’t know what to do. He didn’t want to go home but he didn’t know if Kylo even wanted him to stay at all after this moment of showing his own vulnerability. 

  
Kylo shook out his leg and made slightly pained sounds while he did. 

“Stupid leg”, he said. 

Kylo didn’t even seem to notice that he was still holding Hux’s hand but Hux didn’t want to pull away. He was afraid Kylo would take it the wrong way, that he might think that Hux was suddenly scared of touching him.   
He bumped his shoulder into Kylo’s after an overly long minute of silence.   
“Let’s do something”, he whispered.

Kylo looked at him thoughtfully, then without letting go of Hux’s hand he grabbed his phone from the bedside table and looked through it for a moment before he put a song which could be heard from the small bluetooth speakers on the desk.   
Hux knew he had heard that song before when he had been at Kylo’s place another time but he couldn’t remember the name of it or who it was by. It wasn’t super important anyway.   
  


Kylo took a deep breath but said nothing while they kept listening to the music. Then he looked over to Hux after the next song started.   
“You need better makeup for that bruise”, he said. Hux felt his face flush, he had forgotten about his bad attempt at covering it up.   
“I borrowed that from my step-mother. I don’t know how to put it on”, he admitted. “I’m not good at this stuff.”   
“Let me try it”, Kylo said. He got up and slipped out of the room for a moment only to return with a bunch of stuff that Hux guessed was his mother’s make-up but also some wipes and a small mirror, he put the things on the bed and went to sit down next to Hux but far away enough so he could work comfortably. Kylo pulled out one of the wipes, he turned Hux’s face carefully while he removed the make-up already there. The slight stinging pain of it made Hux frown.

“Sorry”, Kylo said. “I need a clean base.”    
He looked grim.   
“Shit, that looks bad.”   
“Probably got blue by now”, Hux said.   
“Purple too.”   
Kylo let the wipe fall onto the bed while he reached for the concealer. Hux watched him while Kylo went to work on his face. It wasn’t a very pleasant experience but he could tell that Kylo was trying to be careful. It was as if he barely touched his face.   
“They do that every other week or so. Just shout at each other about stuff and then my father fucks off to his best friend to stay there for a few days”, Kylo said annoyed. “And then he comes back as if nothing happened and he backs out of any attempt my mom makes to talk about it. I hate it.”   
He put the concealer down and grabbed something else. Kylo applied even more make-up to Hux’s face.   
“That sucks”, Hux said because he didn’t know what else he could say. ‘At least they’re not fighting about you’? He didn’t even know if that was the case or not and he didn’t dare ask. ‘At least they’re not beating you’ was way too much. He was happy that Kylo didn’t have to go through that, he didn’t wish that on anyone.   
“Yeah. It does. It sucks big time”, Kylo said, he had stopped with his ministrations on Hux’s face. 

“Sometimes they fight about me and that’s worse. Because I’m such a fuckup.”   
“Seriously?”, Hux said. Kylo stared down at the little bottle in his hands.    
“Last time it was about why the hell I even need a tutor. It’s not like, you know, my dad could take the time or anything… It sucks.”   
“How could he take the time to sit down with you if he’s so busy running off?”, Hux said and immediately regretted it. Sure, it felt good to say it but he probably hurt Kylo even more with that. He was about to apologize when Kylo chuckled.   
“Yeah. Instead you’re the one who has to put up with my stupid ass.”   
“You’re not stupid”, Hux said. He could probably say more, mostly how he thought that Kylo was actually pretty smart but lacked some focus. He could tell him that he used to think of him as a simple-minded bully and that he had been proven wrong a lot of times by now.    
Instead Hux took Kylo’s hand in his.   
“Thank you for letting me come over all the time.”

“Sure. Anytime you need a break from your shitty asshole of a dad. Or when you need a bruise covered up.”   
Kylo reached for the mirror with his unoccupied hand and held it up so that Hux could look at himself.   
“What do you think?”   
Hux looked at himself in the mirror, he was surprised at how good the bruise was covered but maybe the low light of the room also helped.    
“Wow, you’re really good at that”, he said.    
“Thanks”, Kylo said smirking. “I used to do rad make-up for Halloween. You know, flesh wounds and that sort of stuff.”

“I guess this is the opposite of that”, Hux said with a laugh.   
Kylo put the mirror back on the bed.    
“I better re-do that before school tomorrow. Well, if you want me to.”   
“Yeah, I’d like that.”   
Kylo smiled at him which made Hux’s heart beat a little faster. He let go of Hux’s hand to gather up the items on the bed before he stood up.   
“I’ll put this stuff away and then we can maybe play something, if you want?”

“Fine, let’s do that”, Hux said. “But this time you won’t try to grab the controller when I’m winning.”   
“We’ll see”, Kylo said laughing and hurried out of the room.   
  
  
  



End file.
